5G NR data delivery for flexible radio services

ABSTRACT

Embodiments include methods, systems, and apparatuses for receiving a first type of transmission and a second type of transmission. A WTRU may receive a first downlink control information (DCI) during a first downlink (DL) transmission interval allocating first radio resources in the first DL transmission interval for reception of a first type of transmission. The WTRU may receive data from the first type of transmission in the first radio resources. The WTRU may receive data from a second type of transmission in second radio resources that include one or more predetermined regions within the first radio resources. The WTRU may receive a second DCI during a subsequent second DL transmission interval indicating that the data from the first type of transmission was preempted by the data from the second type of transmission. The WTRU may process the data from the first type of transmission based on the second DCI.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the U.S. National Stage, under 35 U.S.C. § 371, ofInternational Application No. PCT/US2017/053646 filed Sep. 27, 2017,which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/400,989,filed on Sep. 28, 2016, U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/416,608,filed on Nov. 2, 2016, U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/431,799,filed on Dec. 8, 2016, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/500,803,filed on May 3, 2017, the contents of which are hereby incorporated byreference herein.

BACKGROUND

Fifth Generation (5G) wireless systems may support a number of differentcommunication types, including enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB),ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC), and massivemachine-type communication (mMTC). Each of these communication types mayhave different transmission and latency requirements and networks may berequired to efficiently allocate resources for each while minimizingconflicts and interference.

SUMMARY

Embodiments include methods, systems, and apparatuses for using one ormore radio resource allocation regions (RRARs) to preempt transmissionof data for a first type of transmission and transmit data for a secondtype of transmissions. The one or more RRARs may be preconfigured anddata may part of a larger radio resource allocation for the first typeof transmission. Data may be transmitted in the one or more RRARswithout prior scheduling. A WTRU may receive an indication that thetransmission of data for the first type of transmission was preempted ina subsequent transmission frame and may process the data of the firsttransmission type accordingly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Furthermore, like reference numerals in the figures indicate likeelements, and wherein:

FIG. 1A is a system diagram illustrating an example communicationssystem in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented;

FIG. 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example wirelesstransmit/receive unit (WTRU) that may be used within the communicationssystem illustrated in FIG. 1A according to an embodiment;

FIG. 1C is a system diagram illustrating an example radio access network(RAN) and an example core network (CN) that may be used within thecommunications system illustrated in FIG. 1A according to an embodiment;

FIG. 1D is a system diagram illustrating a further example RAN and afurther example CN that may be used within the communications systemillustrated in FIG. 1A according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating example framing and timing structuresfor 5G new radio (NR) in FDD;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating example framing and timing structuresfor 5G NR in TDD;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating frequency domain multiplexing (FDM);

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating time domain multiplexing (TDM) and FDMof different NR traffic types;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating conventional processing steps prior toa downlink (DL) transmission;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating one or more radio resource allocationregions (RRARs) in a DL transmission;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating dynamic scheduling of multiple servicesusing RRARs;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the explicit indication of preemptionbefore decoding;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating decoding prior to indication ofpreemption;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating explicit activation for persistentallocations when scheduling multiple services using RRARs;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating autonomous transmission for persistentallocations when scheduling multiple services using RRARs;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of the shaping of transportblock allocations; and

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating another example of shaping oftransport block allocations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating an example communications system 100in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. Thecommunications system 100 may be a multiple access system that providescontent, such as voice, data, video, messaging, broadcast, etc., tomultiple wireless users. The communications system 100 may enablemultiple wireless users to access such content through the sharing ofsystem resources, including wireless bandwidth. For example, thecommunications systems 100 may employ one or more channel accessmethods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time divisionmultiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA),orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), zero-tailunique-word DFT-Spread OFDM (ZT UW DTS-s OFDM), unique word OFDM(UW-OFDM), resource block-filtered OFDM, filter bank multicarrier(FBMC), and the like.

As shown in FIG. 1A, the communications system 100 may include wirelesstransmit/receive units (WTRUs) 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d, a RAN104/113, a CN 106/115, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108,the Internet 110, and other networks 112, though it will be appreciatedthat the disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs, basestations, networks, and/or network elements. Each of the WTRUs 102 a,102 b, 102 c, 102 d may be any type of device configured to operateand/or communicate in a wireless environment. By way of example, theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d, any of which may be referred to as a“station” and/or a “STA”, may be configured to transmit and/or receivewireless signals and may include a user equipment (UE), a mobilestation, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a subscription-based unit, apager, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), asmartphone, a laptop, a netbook, a personal computer, a wireless sensor,a hotspot or Mi-Fi device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watchor other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, amedical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrialdevice and applications (e.g., a robot and/or other wireless devicesoperating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chaincontexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating oncommercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. Any of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c and 102 d may be interchangeably referred toas a UE.

The communications systems 100 may also include a base station 114 aand/or a base station 114 b. Each of the base stations 114 a, 114 b maybe any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at leastone of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d to facilitate access to oneor more communication networks, such as the CN 106/115, the Internet110, and/or the other networks 112. By way of example, the base stations114 a, 114 b may be a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, an eNodeB, a Home Node B, a Home eNode B, a gNB, a NR NodeB, a site controller,an access point (AP), a wireless router, and the like. While the basestations 114 a, 114 b are each depicted as a single element, it will beappreciated that the base stations 114 a, 114 b may include any numberof interconnected base stations and/or network elements.

The base station 114 a may be part of the RAN 104/113, which may alsoinclude other base stations and/or network elements (not shown), such asa base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), relaynodes, etc. The base station 114 a and/or the base station 114 b may beconfigured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals on one or morecarrier frequencies, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown).These frequencies may be in licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or acombination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. A cell may providecoverage for a wireless service to a specific geographical area that maybe relatively fixed or that may change over time. The cell may furtherbe divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associated with thebase station 114 a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in oneembodiment, the base station 114 a may include three transceivers, i.e.,one for each sector of the cell. In an embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technology and mayutilize multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell. For example,beamforming may be used to transmit and/or receive signals in desiredspatial directions.

The base stations 114 a, 114 b may communicate with one or more of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d over an air interface 116, which may beany suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF),microwave, centimeter wave, micrometer wave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet(UV), visible light, etc.). The air interface 116 may be establishedusing any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

More specifically, as noted above, the communications system 100 may bea multiple access system and may employ one or more channel accessschemes, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and the like. Forexample, the base station 114 a in the RAN 104/113 and the WTRUs 102 a,102 b, 102 c may implement a radio technology such as Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), whichmay establish the air interface 115/116/117 using wideband CDMA (WCDMA).WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High-Speed PacketAccess (HSPA) and/or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High-SpeedDownlink (DL) Packet Access (HSDPA) and/or High-Speed UL Packet Access(HSUPA).

In an embodiment, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UMTS TerrestrialRadio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish the air interface 116 usingLong Term Evolution (LTE) and/or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and/orLTE-Advanced Pro (LTE-A Pro).

In an embodiment, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as NR Radio Access, which mayestablish the air interface 116 using New Radio (NR).

In an embodiment, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c may implement multiple radio access technologies. For example, thebase station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may implement LTEradio access and NR radio access together, for instance using dualconnectivity (DC) principles. Thus, the air interface utilized by WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c may be characterized by multiple types of radioaccess technologies and/or transmissions sent to/from multiple types ofbase stations (e.g., a eNB and a gNB).

In other embodiments, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c may implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (i.e.,Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), IEEE 802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperabilityfor Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1×, CDMA2000 EV-DO,Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), InterimStandard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM),Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and thelike.

The base station 114 b in FIG. 1A may be a wireless router, Home Node B,Home eNode B, or access point, for example, and may utilize any suitableRAT for facilitating wireless connectivity in a localized area, such asa place of business, a home, a vehicle, a campus, an industrialfacility, an air corridor (e.g., for use by drones), a roadway, and thelike. In one embodiment, the base station 114 b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 to establish awireless local area network (WLAN). In an embodiment, the base station114 b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102 d may implement a radio technology suchas IEEE 802.15 to establish a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Inyet another embodiment, the base station 114 b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102d may utilize a cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE,LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, NR etc.) to establish a picocell or femtocell. Asshown in FIG. 1A, the base station 114 b may have a direct connection tothe Internet 110. Thus, the base station 114 b may not be required toaccess the Internet 110 via the CN 106/115.

The RAN 104/113 may be in communication with the CN 106/115, which maybe any type of network configured to provide voice, data, applications,and/or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services to one or more ofthe WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d. The data may have varying qualityof service (QoS) requirements, such as differing throughputrequirements, latency requirements, error tolerance requirements,reliability requirements, data throughput requirements, mobilityrequirements, and the like. The CN 106/115 may provide call control,billing services, mobile location-based services, pre-paid calling,Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and/or performhigh-level security functions, such as user authentication. Although notshown in FIG. 1A, it will be appreciated that the RAN 104/113 and/or theCN 106/115 may be in direct or indirect communication with other RANsthat employ the same RAT as the RAN 104/113 or a different RAT. Forexample, in addition to being connected to the RAN 104/113, which may beutilizing a NR radio technology, the CN 106/115 may also be incommunication with another RAN (not shown) employing a GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, WiMAX, E-UTRA, or WiFi radio technology.

The CN 106/115 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c, 102 d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, and/or the othernetworks 112. The PSTN 108 may include circuit-switched telephonenetworks that provide plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks anddevices that use common communication protocols, such as thetransmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP) and/orthe internet protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite. Thenetworks 112 may include wired and/or wireless communications networksowned and/or operated by other service providers. For example, thenetworks 112 may include another CN connected to one or more RANs, whichmay employ the same RAT as the RAN 104/113 or a different RAT.

Some or all of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d in thecommunications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities (e.g., theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d may include multiple transceivers forcommunicating with different wireless networks over different wirelesslinks). For example, the WTRU 102 c shown in FIG. 1A may be configuredto communicate with the base station 114 a, which may employ acellular-based radio technology, and with the base station 114 b, whichmay employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

FIG. 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102. As shownin FIG. 1B, the WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120,a transmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126,a display/touchpad 128, non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132,a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136,and/or other peripherals 138, among others. It will be appreciated thatthe WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the foregoing elementswhile remaining consistent with an embodiment.

The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purposeprocessor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), aplurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in associationwith a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine,and the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, dataprocessing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any otherfunctionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wirelessenvironment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120,which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. While FIG. 1Bdepicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separatecomponents, it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and thetransceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package orchip.

The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signalsto, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 116. For example, in one embodiment, thetransmit/receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to transmitand/or receive RF signals. In an embodiment, the transmit/receiveelement 122 may be an emitter/detector configured to transmit and/orreceive IR, UV, or visible light signals, for example. In yet anotherembodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured totransmit and/or receive both RF and light signals. It will beappreciated that the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured totransmit and/or receive any combination of wireless signals.

Although the transmit/receive element 122 is depicted in FIG. 1B as asingle element, the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit/receiveelements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMOtechnology. Thus, in one embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include two ormore transmit/receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) fortransmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface 116.

The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate the signals that areto be transmitted by the transmit/receive element 122 and to demodulatethe signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 122. Asnoted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, thetransceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as NR and IEEE 802.11, forexample.

The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to, and may receiveuser input data from, the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/orthe display/touchpad 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) displayunit or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit). The processor118 may also output user data to the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad126, and/or the display/touchpad 128. In addition, the processor 118 mayaccess information from, and store data in, any type of suitable memory,such as the non-removable memory 130 and/or the removable memory 132.The non-removable memory 130 may include random-access memory (RAM),read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of memory storagedevice. The removable memory 132 may include a subscriber identitymodule (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure digital (SD) memory card,and the like. In other embodiments, the processor 118 may accessinformation from, and store data in, memory that is not physicallylocated on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or a home computer (notshown).

The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134, and maybe configured to distribute and/or control the power to the othercomponents in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitabledevice for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 mayinclude one or more dry cell batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium (NiCd),nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion),etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, and the like.

The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which maybe configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude andlatitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. In additionto, or in lieu of, the information from the GPS chipset 136, the WTRU102 may receive location information over the air interface 116 from abase station (e.g., base stations 114 a, 114 b) and/or determine itslocation based on the timing of the signals being received from two ormore nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 mayacquire location information by way of any suitablelocation-determination method while remaining consistent with anembodiment.

The processor 118 may further be coupled to other peripherals 138, whichmay include one or more software and/or hardware modules that provideadditional features, functionality and/or wired or wirelessconnectivity. For example, the peripherals 138 may include anaccelerometer, an e-compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera(for photographs and/or video), a universal serial bus (USB) port, avibration device, a television transceiver, a hands free headset, aBluetooth® module, a frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a digitalmusic player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internetbrowser, a Virtual Reality and/or Augmented Reality (VR/AR) device, anactivity tracker, and the like. The peripherals 138 may include one ormore sensors, the sensors may be one or more of a gyroscope, anaccelerometer, a hall effect sensor, a magnetometer, an orientationsensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a time sensor; ageolocation sensor; an altimeter, a light sensor, a touch sensor, amagnetometer, a barometer, a gesture sensor, a biometric sensor, and/ora humidity sensor.

The WTRU 102 may include a full duplex radio for which transmission andreception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated withparticular subframes for both the UL (e.g., for transmission) anddownlink (e.g., for reception) may be concurrent and/or simultaneous.The full duplex radio may include an interference management unit 139 toreduce and or substantially eliminate self-interference via eitherhardware (e.g., a choke) or signal processing via a processor (e.g., aseparate processor (not shown) or via processor 118). In an embodiment,the WTRU 102 may include a half-duplex radio for which transmission andreception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated withparticular subframes for either the UL (e.g., for transmission) or thedownlink (e.g., for reception)).

FIG. 1C is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 104 and the CN 106according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 104 may employ anE-UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be in communicationwith the CN 106.

The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c, though it will beappreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs whileremaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment,the eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c may implement MIMO technology. Thus,the eNode-B 160 a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmitwireless signals to, and/or receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a.

Each of the eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c may be associated with aparticular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radioresource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of usersin the UL and/or DL, and the like. As shown in FIG. 1C, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160 b, 160 c may communicate with one another over an X2 interface.

The CN 106 shown in FIG. 1C may include a mobility management entity(MME) 162, a serving gateway (SGW) 164, and a packet data network (PDN)gateway (or PGW) 166. While each of the foregoing elements are depictedas part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any of these elementsmay be owned and/or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 162 a, 162 b, 162 cin the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a control node. Forexample, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating users of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, bearer activation/deactivation, selecting aparticular serving gateway during an initial attach of the WTRUs 102 a,102 b, 102 c, and the like. The MME 162 may provide a control planefunction for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown)that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM and/or WCDMA.

The SGW 164 may be connected the eNode Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c in the RAN104 via the S1 interface. The SGW 164 may generally route and forwarduser data packets to/from the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c. The SGW 164 mayperform other functions, such as anchoring user planes duringinter-eNode B handovers, triggering paging when DL data is available forthe WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, managing and storing contexts of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, and the like.

The SGW 164 may be connected to the PGW 166, which may provide the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access to packet-switched networks, such as theInternet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102b, 102 c and IP-enabled devices.

The CN 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. Forexample, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c withaccess to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitatecommunications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c and traditionalland-line communications devices. For example, the CN 106 may include,or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem(IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the CN 106 and thePSTN 108. In addition, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c with access to the other networks 112, which may include otherwired and/or wireless networks that are owned and/or operated by otherservice providers.

Although the WTRU is described in FIGS. 1A-1D as a wireless terminal, itis contemplated that in certain representative embodiments that such aterminal may use (e.g., temporarily or permanently) wired communicationinterfaces with the communication network.

In representative embodiments, the other network 112 may be a WLAN.

A WLAN in Infrastructure Basic Service Set (BSS) mode may have an AccessPoint (AP) for the BSS and one or more stations (STAs) associated withthe AP. The AP may have an access or an interface to a DistributionSystem (DS) or another type of wired/wireless network that carriestraffic in to and/or out of the BSS. Traffic to STAs that originatesfrom outside the BSS may arrive through the AP and may be delivered tothe STAs. Traffic originating from STAs to destinations outside the BSSmay be sent to the AP to be delivered to respective destinations.Traffic between STAs within the BSS may be sent through the AP, forexample, where the source STA may send traffic to the AP and the AP maydeliver the traffic to the destination STA. The traffic between STAswithin a BSS may be considered and/or referred to as peer-to-peertraffic. The peer-to-peer traffic may be sent between (e.g., directlybetween) the source and destination STAs with a direct link setup (DLS).In certain representative embodiments, the DLS may use an 802.11e DLS oran 802.11z tunneled DLS (TDLS). A WLAN using an Independent BSS (IBSS)mode may not have an AP, and the STAs (e.g., all of the STAs) within orusing the IBSS may communicate directly with one other. The IBSS mode ofcommunication may sometimes be referred to herein as an “ad-hoc” mode ofcommunication.

When using the 802.11ac infrastructure mode of operation or a similarmode of operations, the AP may transmit a beacon on a fixed channel,such as a primary channel. The primary channel may be a fixed width(e.g., 20 MHz wide bandwidth) or a dynamically set width via signaling.The primary channel may be the operating channel of the BSS and may beused by the STAs to establish a connection with the AP. In certainrepresentative embodiments, Carrier Sense Multiple Access with CollisionAvoidance (CSMA/CA) may be implemented, for example in 802.11 systems.For CSMA/CA, the STAs (e.g., every STA), including the AP, may sense theprimary channel. If the primary channel is sensed/detected and/ordetermined to be busy by a particular STA, the particular STA may backoff. One STA (e.g., only one station) may transmit at any given time ina given BSS.

High Throughput (HT) STAs may use a 40 MHz wide channel forcommunication, for example, via a combination of the primary 20 MHzchannel with an adjacent or nonadjacent 20 MHz channel to form a 40 MHzwide channel.

Very High Throughput (VHT) STAs may support 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz,and/or 160 MHz wide channels. The 40 MHz, and/or 80 MHz, channels may beformed by combining contiguous 20 MHz channels. A 160 MHz channel may beformed by combining 8 contiguous 20 MHz channels, or by combining twonon-contiguous 80 MHz channels, which may be referred to as an 80+80configuration. For the 80+80 configuration, the data, after channelencoding, may be passed through a segment parser that may divide thedata into two streams. Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processing,and time domain processing, may be done on each stream separately. Thestreams may be mapped on to the two 80 MHz channels, and the data may betransmitted by a transmitting STA. At the receiver of the receiving STA,the above described operation for the 80+80 configuration may bereversed, and the combined data may be sent to the Medium Access Control(MAC).

Sub 1 GHz modes of operation are supported by 802.11af and 802.11ah. Thechannel operating bandwidths, and carriers, are reduced in 802.11af and802.11ah relative to those used in 802.11n, and 802.11ac. 802.11afsupports 5 MHz, 10 MHz and 20 MHz bandwidths in the TV White Space(TVWS) spectrum, and 802.11ah supports 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 8 MHz, and16 MHz bandwidths using non-TVWS spectrum. According to a representativeembodiment, 802.11ah may support Meter Type Control/Machine-TypeCommunications, such as MTC devices in a macro coverage area. MTCdevices may have certain capabilities, for example, limited capabilitiesincluding support for (e.g., only support for) certain and/or limitedbandwidths. The MTC devices may include a battery with a battery lifeabove a threshold (e.g., to maintain a very long battery life).

WLAN systems, which may support multiple channels, and channelbandwidths, such as 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11af, and 802.11ah, include achannel which may be designated as the primary channel. The primarychannel may have a bandwidth equal to the largest common operatingbandwidth supported by all STAs in the BSS. The bandwidth of the primarychannel may be set and/or limited by a STA, from among all STAs inoperating in a BSS, which supports the smallest bandwidth operatingmode. In the example of 802.11ah, the primary channel may be 1 MHz widefor STAs (e.g., MTC type devices) that support (e.g., only support) a 1MHz mode, even if the AP, and other STAs in the BSS support 2 MHz, 4MHz, 8 MHz, 16 MHz, and/or other channel bandwidth operating modes.Carrier sensing and/or Network Allocation Vector (NAV) settings maydepend on the status of the primary channel. If the primary channel isbusy, for example, due to a STA (which supports only a 1 MHz operatingmode), transmitting to the AP, the entire available frequency bands maybe considered busy even though a majority of the frequency bands remainsidle and may be available.

In the United States, the available frequency bands, which may be usedby 802.11ah, are from 902 MHz to 928 MHz. In Korea, the availablefrequency bands are from 917.5 MHz to 923.5 MHz. In Japan, the availablefrequency bands are from 916.5 MHz to 927.5 MHz. The total bandwidthavailable for 802.11ah is 6 MHz to 26 MHz depending on the country code.

FIG. 1D is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 113 and the CN 115according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 113 may employ an NRradio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c overthe air interface 116. The RAN 113 may also be in communication with theCN 115.

The RAN 113 may include gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c, though it will beappreciated that the RAN 113 may include any number of gNBs whileremaining consistent with an embodiment. The gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 cmay include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, thegNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may implement MIMO technology. For example,gNBs 180 a, 108 b may utilize beamforming to transmit signals to and/orreceive signals from the gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c. Thus, the gNB 180 a,for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to,and/or receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102 a. In an embodiment,the gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may implement carrier aggregationtechnology. For example, the gNB 180 a may transmit multiple componentcarriers to the WTRU 102 a (not shown). A subset of these componentcarriers may be on unlicensed spectrum while the remaining componentcarriers may be on licensed spectrum. In an embodiment, the gNBs 180 a,180 b, 180 c may implement Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technology.For example, WTRU 102 a may receive coordinated transmissions from gNB180 a and gNB 180 b (and/or gNB 180 c).

The WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may communicate with gNBs 180 a, 180 b,180 c using transmissions associated with a scalable numerology. Forexample, the OFDM symbol spacing and/or OFDM subcarrier spacing may varyfor different transmissions, different cells, and/or different portionsof the wireless transmission spectrum. The WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c maycommunicate with gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c using subframe or transmissiontime intervals (TTIs) of various or scalable lengths (e.g., containingvarying number of OFDM symbols and/or lasting varying lengths ofabsolute time).

The gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may be configured to communicate with theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c in a standalone configuration and/or anon-standalone configuration. In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102 b, 102 c may communicate with gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c withoutalso accessing other RANs (e.g., such as eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c).In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may utilizeone or more of gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c as a mobility anchor point. Inthe standalone configuration, WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may communicatewith gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c using signals in an unlicensed band. In anon-standalone configuration WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may communicatewith/connect to gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c while also communicatingwith/connecting to another RAN such as eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c. Forexample, WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may implement DC principles tocommunicate with one or more gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c and one or moreeNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c substantially simultaneously. In thenon-standalone configuration, eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c may serve asa mobility anchor for WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c and gNBs 180 a, 180 b,180 c may provide additional coverage and/or throughput for servicingWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c.

The gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may be associated with a particular cell(not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource managementdecisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the UL and/or DL,support of network slicing, dual connectivity, interworking between NRand E-UTRA, routing of user plane data towards User Plane Function (UPF)184 a, 184 b, routing of control plane information towards Access andMobility Management Function (AMF) 182 a, 182 b and the like. As shownin FIG. 1D, the gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may communicate with oneanother over an Xn interface.

The CN 115 shown in FIG. 1D may include at least one AMF 182 a, 182 b,at least one UPF 184 a, 184 b, at least one Session Management Function(SMF) 183 a, 183 b, and possibly a Data Network (DN) 185 a, 185 b. Whilethe foregoing elements are depicted as part of the CN 115, it will beappreciated that any of these elements may be owned and/or operated byan entity other than the CN operator.

The AMF 182 a, 182 b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180 a,180 b, 180 c in the RAN 113 via an N2 interface and may serve as acontrol node. For example, the AMF 182 a, 182 b may be responsible forauthenticating users of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, support fornetwork slicing (e.g., handling of different PDU sessions with differentrequirements), selecting a particular SMF 183 a, 183 b, management ofthe registration area, termination of NAS signaling, mobilitymanagement, and the like. Network slicing may be used by the AMF 182 a,182 b in order to customize CN support for WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 cbased on the types of services being utilized WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c.For example, different network slices may be established for differentuse cases such as services relying on ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC)access, services relying on enhanced massive mobile broadband (eMBB)access, services for machine type communication (MTC) access, and/or thelike. The AMF 162 may provide a control plane function for switchingbetween the RAN 113 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radiotechnologies, such as LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, and/or non-3GPP accesstechnologies such as WiFi.

The SMF 183 a, 183 b may be connected to an AMF 182 a, 182 b in the CN115 via an N11 interface. The SMF 183 a, 183 b may also be connected toa UPF 184 a, 184 b in the CN 115 via an N4 interface. The SMF 183 a, 183b may select and control the UPF 184 a, 184 b and configure the routingof traffic through the UPF 184 a, 184 b. The SMF 183 a, 183 b mayperform other functions, such as managing and allocating UE IP address,managing PDU sessions, controlling policy enforcement and QoS, providingdownlink data notifications, and the like. A PDU session type may beIP-based, non-IP based, Ethernet-based, and the like.

The UPF 184 a, 184 b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180 a,180 b, 180 c in the RAN 113 via an N3 interface, which may provide theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access to packet-switched networks, suchas the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102 b, 102 c and IP-enabled devices. The UPF 184, 184 b may performother functions, such as routing and forwarding packets, enforcing userplane policies, supporting multi-homed PDU sessions, handling user planeQoS, buffering downlink packets, providing mobility anchoring, and thelike.

The CN 115 may facilitate communications with other networks. Forexample, the CN 115 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway(e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as aninterface between the CN 115 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 115may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access to the othernetworks 112, which may include other wired and/or wireless networksthat are owned and/or operated by other service providers. In oneembodiment, the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may be connected to a localData Network (DN) 185 a, 185 b through the UPF 184 a, 184 b via the N3interface to the UPF 184 a, 184 b and an N6 interface between the UPF184 a, 184 b and the DN 185 a, 185 b.

In view of FIGS. 1A-1D, and the corresponding description of FIGS.1A-1D, one or more, or all, of the functions described herein withregard to one or more of: WTRU 102 a-d, Base Station 114 a-b, eNode-B160 a-c, MME 162, SGW 164, PGW 166, gNB 180 a-c, AMF 182 a-ab, UPF 184a-b, SMF 183 a-b, DN 185 a-b, and/or any other device(s) describedherein, may be performed by one or more emulation devices (not shown).The emulation devices may be one or more devices configured to emulateone or more, or all, of the functions described herein. For example, theemulation devices may be used to test other devices and/or to simulatenetwork and/or WTRU functions.

The emulation devices may be designed to implement one or more tests ofother devices in a lab environment and/or in an operator networkenvironment. For example, the one or more emulation devices may performthe one or more, or all, functions while being fully or partiallyimplemented and/or deployed as part of a wired and/or wirelesscommunication network in order to test other devices within thecommunication network. The one or more emulation devices may perform theone or more, or all, functions while being temporarilyimplemented/deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communicationnetwork. The emulation device may be directly coupled to another devicefor purposes of testing and/or may performing testing using over-the-airwireless communications.

The one or more emulation devices may perform the one or more, includingall, functions while not being implemented/deployed as part of a wiredand/or wireless communication network. For example, the emulationdevices may be utilized in a testing scenario in a testing laboratoryand/or a non-deployed (e.g., testing) wired and/or wirelesscommunication network in order to implement testing of one or morecomponents. The one or more emulation devices may be test equipment.Direct RF coupling and/or wireless communications via RF circuitry(e.g., which may include one or more antennas) may be used by theemulation devices to transmit and/or receive data.

A WTRU as used in the embodiments described herein and the associatedfigures may include a WTRU, STA, or other device configured to operatein a wireless communication system. Accordingly, the terms WTRU, STA, orother device configured to operate in a wireless communication systemmay be used interchangeably in the embodiments described herein and theassociated figures.

As described above, the 5G NR air interface may support a number ofdifferent transmission types, including Enhanced Mobile Broadband(eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), and MassiveMachine-Type Communications (mMTC).

In the 5G system, eMBB may cover a broad range of use cases similar tomobile broadband data being delivered today by 3G, HSPA, or 4G LTEnetworks. Many applications may require eMBB due to ever-increasingdemand in terms of data rates for wireless data delivery to devices inhot spots and in wide-area coverage. Hotspots often require very highdata rates, support very high user densities, and demand very highcapacity. Wide-area coverage often requires support for mobility and aseamless user experience, but may have somewhat lower requirements interms of user densities and data rates available to users.

URLLC may be used in conventional communication scenarios involvinghumans, but may also imply machine-centric communications, which may bereferred to as critical machine-type communication (C-MTC). Examples ofC-MTC include vehicular type communications, wireless control forindustrial equipment, and smart grid control applications. URLLC may beused in gaming over wireless connections. URLLC may have very stringentrequirements imposed onto latency, reliability and availability. In thecase of gaming over wireless connections, the low-latency requirement iscombined with the need to support high data rates.

The main characteristic of mMTC is a large number of wirelesslyconnected devices, each of which may have a long battery life and mayoperate for an extended period of time. These devices may requireinfrequent transmissions of small size data packets that may not beparticularly delay sensitive. In certain use cases, an extremely highconnection density for mMTC type devices may be needed. The total numberof mMTC devices present in the wireless system may pose a number ofchallenges.

Each of these transmission types may have very different requirements interms of user plane latency and required coverage levels. For example,URLLC operation may require very low transfer delay latency (<0.5 ms) onthe interface between a NR-eNB/TRP and a WTRU (i.e., the Uu interface).In order to meet high reliability targets in terms of extremely lowresidual packet error rates following Physical Layer (L1) and higherlayer processing, the supported link budget may need to be sacrificed.URLLC may result in short bursts of data transmission in the order of100-200 μs in L1. Accordingly, there may be limited opportunities forpossible hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmissions per eachHARQ process. In addition, very tight requirements may be imposed ontoallowable scheduling delay due to the compressed Uu transfer delaytimeline.

Conversely, many mMTC applications may require an extended or extremecoverage levels with a high maximum coupling loss (MCL). Latencyrequirements for successful data delivery in many mMTC applications maybe very relaxed. For example, they may only be in the order of secondsor tens of seconds.

For eMBB, latency requirements may not be as stringent as those forURLLC. Very low latency for packet transfers may be beneficial at theinitial stage of data transmission in order to avoid a TCP slow startthat negatively affects the overall user packet delay during packettransfers. Given the significant amounts of data transferred for an eMBBuser, long sequential bursts of high volume data are often transferred.This may result in a wide instantaneous bandwidth occupation for ascheduled eMBB transmission and the use of long DL or UL transferintervals in the order of at least 0.5-1 ms.

There may be significant design changes in the 5G NR radio interfacewhen compared to 4G LTE. One reason for changes may be to support a muchlarger variety of 5G NR use case families with more challenging anddiverse sets of service requirements. Another reason for changes may bethe need to support these use case families in a future-proof radiodesign approach that is scalable and adaptable to the needs of these 5GNR use case families.

The 5G NR radio interface may support massive antenna configurationsthat may require changes in the way that pilot signals are assigned,transmitted, and tracked in base stations and terminals. Support forminimum overhead in NR deployments may require changes to systemacquisition and initial access to avoid the always-on type of DL controlsignals and channels sent by LTE base stations that often result in highamounts of residual background interference, even if LTE cells don'tcarry traffic. Support for flexible radio access in NR may require avery high degree of spectrum flexibility and spectral containment formultiple access waveforms in order to multiplex signals of differentusers with different numerology and parameterization onto a channel. NRflexible radio access may also include support of different duplexarrangements, different and/or variable sizes of available spectrumallocations to different terminals, variable timing and transmissiondurations for DL and UL data transmissions, and variable timing of DLassignment and UL grant signaling and corresponding control signals.Flexible transmission time interval (TTI) lengths and the asynchronousUL transmissions may be supported.

It may be assumed that the NR DL and UL transmissions are organized intoradio subframes of possibly variable duration. The DL and ULtransmissions may be characterized by a number of fixed aspects such aslocation of DL control information and a number of varying aspects suchas transmission timing or supported types of transmissions.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3 , diagrams illustrating example framingand timing structures for 5G NR in FDD mode and TDD mode, respectively,are shown. A basic time interval (BTI) may be expressed as a number ofone or more OFDM symbols, wherein symbol duration may be a function ofthe subcarrier spacing applicable to the time-frequency resource. In NR,subcarrier spacing and/or OFDM channelization may differ for differentchannels multiplexed on a given carrier. For FDD, subcarrier spacingand/or OFDM channelization and parameterization may differ between theUL carrier frequency (f_(UL)) and the DL carrier frequency (f_(DL)).

A TTI 202 may be a time interval supported by the system betweenconsecutive transmissions. The TTI 202 may be associated with differenttransport blocks for the DL 204 and for the UL 206. Control informationmay be included, such as downlink control information (DCI) 208 for DLtransmission and uplink control information (UCI) for UL transmissions.A TTI 202 may be expressed as a number of one of more BTIs and/or as afunction of OFDM channelization and parameterization.

A NR subframe may contain DCI 208 of a certain time duration t_(dci) anddownlink data transmissions (DL TRx) 204 on the concerned carrierfrequency (e.g., f_(UL+DL) for TDD and f_(DL) for FDD). There may bemultiple DCIs 208 per transmission interval. The time/frequency locationof the DCIs 208 may occur before the data or DCIs 208 may be multiplexedwith data.

For TDD duplexing, a frame may include a DL portion, which may include aDCI 208 and DL TRx 204, and also an UL portion, which may include an ULTRx 206. A switching gap (SWG) may precede the UL portion of the frame,if present. For FDD duplexing, a subframe may include a DL reference TTI202 and one or more TTIs 202 for the UL. The start of an UL TTI 202 maybe derived using an timing offset (t_(offset)) applied from the start ofa DL reference frame when compared with the start of an UL subframe.

Referring now to FIG. 4 , a diagram illustrating frequency domainmultiplexing (FDM) is shown. In order to support multiple types oftraffic at the same time, the 5G NR radio network may use FDM and maysegregate eMBB transmissions 402, mMTC transmissions 404, and URLLCtransmissions 406 on different NR frequency channels 408. The differentNR frequency channels 408 may be located on different frequency bands.For example, when extended coverage for mMTC type of devices isprovided, the use of the lower sub-1 GHz bands may be preferred due totheir much better propagation characteristics. In other cases, such aswhen dedicated type of URLLC applications are used, it may be expectedthat dedicated frequency deployments are at least initially preferreddue to a much better control over service quality.

The use of FDM for the purpose of multiplexing different traffic typesmay also be used in a single shared frequency channel with differentallocated bandwidth regions located on that carrier. Differentnumerologies may also be used in the different bandwidth regions. Asshown in FIG. 4 , a 2 GHz FDD carrier may be split into an eMBB regionfor eMBB transmissions 402 and a dedicated URLLC bandwidth region forURLLC transmissions 406. This approach may be similar to conventionalguard-band or inband types of deployment.

Referring now to FIG. 5 , a diagram illustrating time domainmultiplexing (TDM) and FDM of different NR traffic types is shown. Asshown in FIG. 5 , both FDM and TDM may be used on a frequency channeland the eMBB WTRU 502 and URLLC WTRU 504, URLLC WTRU 506 may be assignedvariable-length TTIs of different duration. If no transmission activityoccurs in the bandwidth region allocated to URLLC, the eMBB WTRU mayreclaim transmission resources as long as flexible control channel andDL Physical Shared Channel (PSCH) assignment protocols are supported.

There may be several problems associated with the FDM and/or TDMmultiplexing approaches shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 due to signaling andtraffic characteristics of the eMBB, URLLC and mMTC services.

For example, FDM is not spectrally efficient when different dedicated NRfrequency channels on different bands are used. An entire carrier mayneed to be reserved exclusively for one type of radio service and thatcarrier may see only small resource utilization. This drawback issignificant especially in the case where traffic is expected to besparse and bursty, such as in URLLC. Referring to FIG. 5 , even in thecase of FDM and TDM, the remainder of the DL RBs granted to URLLC WTRU504 and URLLC 506 may go unused if conventional frequency-domainrestricted allocations are used. Accordingly, relying on traditional FDMand/or TDM service multiplexing approaches may not utilize all availableradio resources resulting in a low spectral efficiency.

Another issue is that low and medium data rate intermittent trafficgenerated by many machine-type use cases such as URLLC may generallyresult in short interference bursts requiring almost instantaneoustransmission once a PDU arrives. On a given frequency channel, some TTIsmay need to contain both eMBB and URLLC data packets. In many otherTTIs, there may only be eMBB data carried on a DL PSCH. As describedabove, eMBB transmissions have a much larger allowable Uu delay budgetthan URLLC. Accordingly, the initial eNB scheduling step for multiplexedeMBB users may select the essential transmission parameters thatdetermine the L1 and front-end processing and memory bufferingrequirements. On the other hand, URLLC transmissions may be small dataunits with much shorter allowable Uu delay budgets. A schedulingdecision to transmit data for a URLLC user in a given DL transmissioninterval may be possible only in the very last moment.

Referring now to FIG. 6 , a diagram illustrating conventional processingsteps prior to a DL transmission is shown. As shown in FIG. 6 , severalfunctions may need to be performed before a DL transmission actuallystarts. An eNB may need to make a scheduling decision 602, then may needto perform L2 processing 604 followed by L1 processing 606 for a DLPSCH. If the baseband (BB) unit is connected to a remote radio head(RRH), digital samples may also need to be transmitted to the RRH priorto the DL transmission.

Before a scheduling decision 602 is made by the eNB, several factors maybe accounted for, including, but limited to: channel state feedback,traffic queues, possible retransmissions for live queues, quality ofservice (QoS), and access stratum (AS) or non-access stratum (NAS)signaling needs. As a result of the scheduling decision, one or moreWTRUs may be selected for the transmission period. In addition,transport block size, modulation order, and PRB allocations may bedetermined prior to the transmission.

L2 processing 604 may involve the AS protocol handling and management ofthe memory buffer to ensure data integrity. The control planerequirements may also affect this processing stage.

L1 processing 606 may be more extensive and may include a cyclicredundancy check (CRC), channel encoding, and rate matching of codedblocks, which may then be followed by scrambling, modulation and spatiallayer mapping (including precoding). Control symbols like a referencesignal (RS) may be inserted into the BB sequence generated from data.Finally, digital BB front-end processing may be performed, which mayinclude DFT and BB filtering or windowing. At the end of this step,digital IQ samples may be generated for the entire transmission coveringthe entire subframe. Significant memory may be required, so the last L1processing step may be executed as shortly as possible before the actualDL transmission occurs. If transport to the RRH unit is required fromthe eNB BB unit, additional delays may also be budgeted for transportover the distribution network.

As can be seen, significant processing delays (e.g., 1-1.5 ms) may beincurred for MBB and eMBB types of data services before the DLtransmission in a subframe or TTI actually starts.

As shown in FIG. 6 , transport block sizes for users multiplexed into agiven subframe may already be determined during the initial eNBscheduling decision in step 602. The number of coded bits for thetransport block of a particular user computed during L1 processing,which may determine the memory needs in the L1 processing step 606, mayactually be obtained much earlier (e.g., after the eNB scheduling). Thenumber of coded bits may be dependent only on the number of allocatedRBs, the modulation order, and the presence of L1 signals (e.g., RS orcontrol channels) present in a subframe.

It may not be desirable to change a multiplexing decision for a givenuser during scheduling and processing in L1 and higher layers. Once theeNB makes the scheduling decision, either to change the determinedtransport block size for a selected user or to add a user to an alreadyscheduled and processed DL transmission interval, the L1 processing andfront-end buffering memory may be affected extensively.

Due to very tight Uu delay budgets for URLLC applications, the requiredURLLC scheduling delay may be much smaller than what eMBB type ofscheduling is able to afford. For example, if URLLC data with an allowedtotal Uu delay budget of 4 ms arrives while an eMBB transmission burst,scheduled 1-1.5 ms prior to the DL transmission burst with a duration of2 ms, just started or is in progress, the latency requirement of URLLCmay be difficult or impossible to meet. If URLLC traffic has to wait tobe scheduled (i.e. after the 2 ms eMBB transmission terminates), asignificant portion of its short allowable 4 ms Uu delay budget may nolonger be used for retransmissions. As a result, the supported data ratefor URLLC for a given packet error rate may be greatly decreased, and/orthe achievable link budget and radio range may be greatly reduced. URLLCtransmissions that need to be completed in less than 2 ms may becompletely impossible. Alternatively, if URLLC PDUs are scheduled andinserted last moment (i.e., when a PDU becomes available in the Txbuffer into the already scheduled 2 ms eMBB transmission), either eNBmemory and buffering requirements may be increased or radio linkperformance may be impacted. In addition, scheduling opportunities inthe DL transmission intervals may need to be provided, which may poseadditional challenges.

Another problem is that traditional FDM and/or TDM service multiplexingapproaches for different types of NR use cases may not allow support forthe desired service-specific Uu delay requirements when beingconcurrently deployed.

Methods and apparatuses described below may support efficientmultiplexing of data services in the presence of very different radioperformance requirements. The methods and apparatuses may overcome theobserved limitations of existing techniques, which may result indecreased radio performance or increased complexity for thetransmitter/receiver implementations. The methods and apparatuses mayaccommodate the possibility of multiplexing by means of FDM and/or TDMwhereby short-delay types of transmissions such as those exemplified byURLLC may be scheduled, processed, and transmitted even if large-delaytypes of transmissions such as those exemplified by eMBB were scheduledmuch earlier and their transmission may be ongoing in the DLtransmission interval.

It should be noted that in the following description, a TTI may refer toone or more of the following periods. A TTI may refer to a subframe,slot, or mini-slot. A TTI may refer to a period of time starting fromthe transmission of downlink control information scheduling at least onetransport block and ending before or at the transmission of downlinkcontrol information scheduling subsequent transport blocks. A TTI mayrefer to a number of OFDM symbols in a reference numerology (e.g., basedon a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz) or in the numerology used for thetransmission of control information or data.

An interval in the frequency domain may be expressed in terms of Hz (orkHz), in terms of a number of subcarriers or a number of resource blocksin a reference numerology (e.g. based on a subcarrier spacing of 15kHz), or in the numerology used for the transmission of controlinformation or data. A continuous frequency allocation may be defined interms of a starting or ending frequency, subcarrier, or resource blocks,and an interval in the frequency domain. A discontinuous frequencyallocation may be defined in terms of a set of continuous frequencyallocations.

Radio resource allocation regions (RRARs) may be configured to allow fortransmission of different types of traffic. A set of one or morewell-identified and limited time/frequency regions may be configured fora NR frequency channel within a larger set of allowed or possibletime/frequency radio resources in which radio transmissions with one ormore designated WTRUs take place.

The RRAR may identify and designate a specific portion of radioresources that may be smaller than what a device may access. The RRARsmay be identified and used in the context of DL, UL, sidelink, andbackhaul transmissions.

A RRAR may be a single contiguous time/frequency region, or it mayinclude multiple, distinct, possibly not contiguous time/frequencyregions defined as a single RRAR. Without loss of generality, thefollowing description may refer to RRARs as single contiguoustime/frequency regions. However, the methods and procedures describedherein may include RRARs defined to include sets of multiplewell-identified time/frequency regions.

Referring now to FIG. 7 , a diagram illustrating one or more RRARs in aDL transmission is shown. FIG. 7 shows a transmission configured with afirst RRAR 702, a second RRAR 704, a third RRAR 706, and a fourth RRAR708 in a first DL transmission 710 of TTI #n. It should be noted thatany number of RRARs may be used.

The one or more RRARs may be defined and identified usingwell-identified and limited time/frequency regions with respect to theoverall radio resources that make up a frequency channel. Alternatively,the one or more RRARs may be defined and identified with respect to aparticular transmission for a device. The one or more RRARs may bedefined in absolute or in relative terms, such as with respect to areference downlink resource configured by RRC signaling. For example, inthe frequency domain, the one or more RRARs may be defined as afrequency allocation within a bandwidth part and/or carrier. The one ormore RRARs may be defined implicitly. For example, in the time domain, aslot or mini-slot immediately preceding the slot or mini-slot in whichDCI or a preemption indicator may indicate that a RRAR does not containuseful symbols for the WTRU The first RRAR 702 may be defined in termsof a subset of physical resource blocks of a given numerology and of aspecific mini-slot that may be identified by a starting OFDM symbol anda number of OFDM symbols.

A NR system may use a 10 MHz wide FDD DL and UL channel pair and a TTIof 0.5 ms duration. A WTRU may access the entire 10 MHz DL channel,which may be scheduled at the beginning of each 0.5 ms TTI. In a firstexample, a RRAR may be identified as a second, smaller, and limitedsubset of possible time/frequency allocations within the first set ofthe entire 10 MHz wide resources. An RRAR may be configured in absoluteterms, such that occurs only every 10th TTI occurrence and may includeonly a single 180 kHz portion within the overall 10 MHz FDD DL channel.Accordingly, the RRAR may comprise only 1/500 of the overalltime/frequency resources available on the FDD DL channel.

In another example, an RRAR may be defined in relative terms for aspecific WTRU as a designated occurrence in terms of symbol intervalsand/or frequency position. The occurrence may be determined by a ruleaccounting for particular transmission settings in the TTI. A WTRU mayreceive a data transmission 5 MHz wide over a duration of 2 ms or a datatransmission of 25 RBs of 180 KHz each with 28 OFDM symbols. One or moreRRARs may be defined in 4 possible occurrences with a symbol offset ofevery 5 symbols from the start of the data transmission for a certainlength and for a limited duration of 3 symbols each. The WTRU maydetermine 4 RRAR positions relative to the received DL data transmissionin the 2 ms interval. If another data transmission is received by theWTRU, for example, of length 14 OFDM symbols or 1 ms duration, then theWTRU may only determine 2 possible RRAR occurrences.

An RRAR may be configured and/or defined with recurrence periods. Therecurrence periods may be periodic or may be defined by means ofallocation patterns that indicate allocations in time or frequency. Anexample for time allocations may be a bitmap indicating which one of thepossible TTIs a WTRU may consider to contain a valid RRAR occurrence,possibly in combination with a frequency allocation. A bitmap for a RRARmay indicate which subframes in a set of selected, consecutive, ornon-consecutive subframes may be valid RRAR allocations. The resourcesof a RRAR may change from one TTI, or subframe, to another according toa cyclic or pseudo-random pattern. As shown in FIG. 7 , the first RRAR702, the second RRAR 704, the third RRAR 706, and the fourth RRAR 708have a recurrence period of every 3 TTIs and occur again in a second DLtransmission 712 in TTI #n+3.

An RRAR may be associated with particular transmission characteristics.For example, an RRAR may be associated with one or more of a selectedOFDM numerology, sub-carrier spacing, symbol length, CP configuration,bandwidth in terms of number of RBs, subcarriers, or selected antennatransmission configuration (e.g., beam or beam process), and schedulingmode.

An RRAR may be determined as a function of a particular transmissionevent. For example, if an RRAR occurrence is scheduled in a given TTI,but the actual DL transmission burst is not long enough to accommodatethe start position of the RRAR, or the DL transmission burst cannotaccommodate the entire duration of the RRAR, the WTRU may consider theRRAR as not valid for that particular TTI occurrence. A RRAR may beconsidered to occur if the TTI length is in excess of a minimumthreshold length. In yet another example, only a TTI indicating unicasttransmissions may be considered for RRAR.

The RRARs may be designated identifiers that may be signaled veryefficiently. This is of particular importance in the context ofscheduling and allowing for efficient multiplexing of different servicetypes.

An RRAR may be configured by a first device, such as a base station, bymeans of a first signaling message. RRC or protocol control signalingmay be used to configure or activate, re-configure, or de-activate anRRAR for a second device, such as a WTRU. The signaling may comprise Txor Rx configurations and transmission characteristics associated with anRRAR, such as the region in time domain (e.g., symbols, mini-slots, andslots) or frequency (e.g., subcarriers, set or range of resource blocks,and bandwidth part). Multiple devices may be configured with the sameRRAR.

The configured RRARs may be associated with an ordered set ofidentifiers such as by being represented by an index or bitmap. Forexample, the first RRAR 702, the second RRAR 704, the third RRAR 706,and the fourth RRAR 708 may be assigned distinct labels that may be usedfor signaling by means of 2 bits or 4 code points.

A device may determine an identifier or index value associated with anRRAR configuration and use the received or derived value in a secondmessage to determine whether an RRAR was used for a transmission. Forexample, a signaling field in a DCI may indicate which RRARs from apreconfigured set of RRARs was used or may be used for a transmission.The signaling field may indicate which RRARs if the preconfigured set ofRRARs are not in use. The DCI may be a common DCI transmitted to one ormore WTRUs.

A configured RRAR may be indicated to a device to signal that processingfor a previously received transmission may need to be adjusted as afunction of another transmission.

Referring now to FIG. 8 , a diagram illustrating dynamic scheduling ofmultiple services using RRARs is shown. A first RRAR 802, a second RRAR804, a third RRAR 806, and a fourth RRAR 808 may be preconfigured andscheduled for a first DL transmission 810 in TTI #n and a second DLtransmission 812 in TTI #n+3. A first WTRU may receive eMBB datatransmissions in TTIs #n, TTI #n+1, TTI #n+2, TTI #n+3, and TTI #n+4.

Despite the presence of the first RRAR 802, the second RRAR 804, thethird RRAR 806, and the fourth RRAR 808 in TTI #n, no transmissions toother devices may have taken place. In TTI #n+3, the eNB may schedule alast moment transmission for a second WTRU, which may use URLLC, usingthe second RRAR 804 and may transmit the URLLC data in the correspondingradio resources. This may be done by puncturing the ongoing eMBB datatransmission for the first WTRU in the TTI #n+3. In the subsequentlyreceived TTI #n+4, the first WTRU may receive DL control signaling(e.g., a DCI), which in addition to the scheduling parameters for thecurrent TTI #n+4, may indicate that the previous transmission receivedin TTI #n+3 was punctured by another transmission in the second RRAR804. This signaling may only require 2 bits. As a result of thesignaling, the first WTRU may set the received and decoded soft channelsbits or metrics for the time/frequency resource elements associated withthe second RRAR 804 corresponding to the transport block/HARQ processreceived in TTI #n+3 to zero to avoid buffer corruption during HARQcombining for that HARQ process.

Decoding performance for the first WTRU may only be impacted in thatavailable energy per bit to noise power spectral density ratio(E_(b)/N₀) for the eMBB transmission is decreased by as much energyrequired to transmit the second RRAR 804, but no additional penalty isincurred. Similarly, since no semi-static resources may be set aside forpossible transmissions with other devices in the configured RRARs, nosystem penalty in terms of spectral efficiency may be incurred. Theavailable radio resources may be used while preserving full flexibilityto schedule delay-sensitive data last moment as needed even though otherlonger-delay transmissions may be ongoing. Signaling usingrepresentative index values or bit representations for configured andwell-identified RRARs may be done by fast and robust L1 signaling suchas a DCI. The example shown in FIG. 8 may illustrate any case in whichan ongoing transmission is punctured and where multiple signaling and/orscheduling opportunities are available for a given TTI.

Even though a last moment scheduling decision to use the second RRAR 804in TTI #n+3 for the second WTRU may be taken by the eNB, in the presenceof multiple signaling or scheduling occasions for this TTI, it may bepossible to indicate to the first WTRU during TTI #n+3 that parts of itstransmission are being punctured.

A WTRU receiving a first data transmission may be preconfigured with aset of possible RRARs. While receiving or upon reception of the firstdata transmission, the WTRU may receive signaling indicating that one ormore of the preconfigured RRARs is received. The one or more RRARs mayindicate the presence of a second transmission in the reception timeinterval. If a RRAR is received, the WTRU may process the received firstdata transmission to account for the second transmission. The WTRU mayreset channel metrics or buffer/memory entries to a determined value,such as 0, or it may apply a correction factor.

Additionally, or alternatively, the WTRU may initially process the firstdata transmission and attempt decoding assuming that the RRARs do notcontain relevant data. The WTRU may buffer soft symbols demodulated fromthe RRARs for potential future use. If the decoding is successful, theWTRU may discard the buffered soft symbols. If the decoding is notsuccessful, the WTRU may receive DCI (e.g., in a subsequent transmissioninterval) indicating whether or not the RRARs contained relevant datafor the WTRU.

The DCI may be a common DCI transmitted to one or more WTRUs. Thefrequency granularity of the pre-emption indication in the DCI may beconfigured to be a number of resource blocks within the referencedownlink resource for the given numerology. The frequency granularitymay be indicated by explicit signaling or implicitly derived by otherRRC signaling. The number of resource blocks may correspond to the wholefrequency region of the downlink reference resource. The timegranularity of the pre-emption indication in the DCI may be configuredto be a number of symbols within the reference downlink resource for thegiven numerology. The time granularity may be indicated by explicitsignaling or implicitly derived by other RRC signaling. Thetime/frequency granularities of pre-emption indication may take intoaccount the payload size of the group common DCI carrying thepre-emption indication.

If the DCI indicates that the RRAR did not contain relevant data, theWTRU may discard the symbols. If the DCI indicates that the RRAR didcontain relevant data, the WTRU may combine the data received in theRRARs with data contained in the rest of the TTI and re-attemptdecoding. The WTRU may associate the data from each RRAR to at least onecode block and redundancy version, and may attempt decoding bysoft-combining the data from each RRAR with the data already received(i.e., buffered) for the corresponding code block. The mapping betweenan RRAR and a code block may depend implicitly on the location in timeand/or frequency of the RRAR, or may be explicitly indicated by the DCI.

Referring now to FIG. 9 , a flowchart illustrating the explicitindication of preemption before decoding as described above is shown.

In step 902, a WTRU may receive a first DCI during a first DLtransmission interval. The first DCI may allocate first radio resourcesin the first DL transmission interval for reception of a first type oftransmission. The first radio resources may include the entire DLfrequency channel and the first type of transmission may include eMBBtraffic.

In step 904, the WTRU may receive data from the first type oftransmission in the first radio resources.

In step 906, the WTRU may receive data from a second type oftransmission in second radio resources. The second radio resources mayinclude one or more predetermined regions within the first radioresources. The second radio resources may be one or more RRARs and thesecond type of transmission may include URLLC traffic. The second typeof transmission may be received while the first type of transmission isbeing received.

In step 908, the WTRU may receive a second DCI during a subsequentsecond DL transmission interval. The second DCI may indicate that thedata from the first type of transmission was preempted by the data fromthe second type of transmission in the second radio resources.

In step 910, the WTRU may process the data from the first type oftransmission based on the second DCI. The processing may includedetermining a first set of one or more symbols associated with the datareceived in the first radio resources, determining a second set of oneor more symbols associated with the data received in the second radioresources; and setting the second set of one or more symbols to zero toavoid buffer corruption during hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)processing.

Referring now to FIG. 10 , a flowchart illustrating decoding prior toindication of preemption is shown.

In step 1002, a WTRU may receive a first downlink control information(DCI) during a first downlink (DL) transmission interval. The first DCImay allocate first radio resources in the first DL transmission intervalfor reception of a first type of transmission. The first radio resourcesmay include the entire DL frequency channel and the first type oftransmission may include eMBB traffic.

In step 1004, the WTRU may receive data from the first type oftransmission in the first radio resources.

In step 1006, the WTRU may determine a first set of one or more symbolsassociated with the data received in the first radio resources.

In step 1008, the WTRU may determine a second set of one or more symbolsassociated with data received in second radio resources. The secondradio resources may include one or more predetermined regions within thefirst radio resources. The second radio resources may be one or moreRRARs.

In step 1010, the WTRU may buffer the second set of one or more symbols.

In step 1012, the WTRU may attempt to decode the first set of one ormore symbols. In step 1014, the WTRU may determine that the decoding issuccessful. In step 1016, the WTRU may discard the buffered second setof one or more symbols.

In step 1018, the WTRU may determine that the decoding is notsuccessful. In step 1020, the WTRU may receive a second DCI during asecond DL transmission interval. In step 1022, the WTRU may discard thebuffered second set of one or more symbols if the second DCI indicatesthat the data from the first type of transmission was preempted by datafrom a second type of transmission in the second radio resources. Thesecond type of transmission may include URLLC traffic. The second typeof transmission may be received while the first type of transmission isbeing received. In step 1024, the WTRU may combine the first set of oneor more symbols and the second set of one or more symbols. In step 1026,the WTRU may reattempt decoding if the second DCI indicates that thedata received in the second radio resources is relevant to the WTRU.

A WTRU may transmit one or more RRARs in the UL. A configured radioresource allocation region may be indicated to a device to signal thatit may transmit in a configured RRAR.

Referring now to FIG. 11 , a diagram illustrating explicit activationfor persistent allocations when scheduling multiple services using RRARsis shown. A first RRAR 1102, a second RRAR 1104, a third RRAR 1106, anda fourth RRAR 1108 may be configured and designated for transmission ina first UL portion 1110 of TTI #n+1 and a second UL portion 1112 in TTI#n+4. Despite the presence of the first RRAR 1102, the second RRAR 1104,the third RRAR 1106, and the fourth RRAR 1108 in the first UL portion1110 of TTI #n+1, no transmission may take place. In TTI #n+4, the eNBmay schedule a last moment transmission for two URLLC WTRUs, using thefirst RRAR 1102 and the fourth RRAR 1108, by means of one or more ULscheduling DCIs 1114. The one or more UL scheduling DCIs 1114 may besent in a DL control field 1116 in the TTI #n+4, which may be sentbefore a DL period 1118. The first URLLC WTRU and the second URLLC WTRUmay then transmit URLLC data in the assigned RRARs. The eNB may use agroup DCI to schedule the uplink URLLC data.

When using representative index values or bit representations forpreconfigured RRARs, fast and robust L1 signaling such as a DCI may beemployed. Because only 2 bits may be required to identify a particularRRAR transmission instance, a DCI may be used to activate transmissionsfor more than one WTRU.

A first device may determine if it has data to transmit and may use aconfigured RRAR to transmit data if the RRAR is available. A seconddevice may determine the presence or absence of data transmission fromthe first device in the RRAR.

Referring now to FIG. 12 , a diagram illustrating autonomoustransmission for persistent allocations when scheduling multipleservices using RRARs is shown. A first RRAR 1202, a second RRAR 1204, athird RRAR 1206, and a fourth RRAR 1208 may be configured and designatedfor an UL portion 1210 of TTI #n+1 and an UL portion 1212 of TTI #n+4.Each of the designated RRARs may correspond to a first WTRU, a secondWTRU, a third WTRU, and a fourth WTRU.

In the UL portion 1210 of TTI #n+1, a first WTRU and a third WTRU havedata to transmit, so transmissions take place in their allowed anddesignated RRARs while the second WTRU and the fourth WTRU do nottransmit. In the UL portion 1212 of TTI #n+4, the first WTRU, the thirdWTRU, and the fourth WTRU have data to transmit, so transmission takeplace in their corresponding RRARs. The second RRAR 1204 may be unused.The eNB may detect the presence or absence of a data transmission fromthe WTRUs for each of the designated RRARs in the TTIs where RRARs whereconfigured and valid (i.e. in the UL portion 1210 of TTI #n+1 and the ULportion 1212 of #n+4). The eNB may use blind detection based on receivedpower or energy received on pilot and/or data symbols corresponding tothe RRARs to detect the presence or absence of data. Because aparticular RRAR transmission may occur over a well identified anddesignated time/frequency region, blind estimation using energydetection may be implemented in a receiving device.

Blind decoding may be used on sub-resources of a slot. For example, aWTRU may attempt decoding control information and/or data in a set of atleast one RRAR of a slot (e.g., downlink or receive sidelink) accordingto at least one configured candidate set of transmission parameters. TheWTRU may make a determination of whether control information and/or dataintended for the WTRU is present in a first RRAR. The WTRU may transmitapplicable HARQ feedback in a second RRAR (e.g., uplink or transmitsidelink) on the condition that such control information and/or data isdetermined to be present in the first RRAR.

This process may reduce the scheduling delay by an order of one or moreOFDM symbols compared to the duration of a whole slot. The network mayindicate a set of RRARs to the WTRU in control information at thebeginning of a slot even if no data is available for the WTRU at thattime. The network may subsequently transmit data (e.g., URLLC data) thatmay become available after transmission of the control information forthe slot. The set of RRARs may have starting OFDM symbols that span thewhole slot to minimize the maximum possible scheduling delay.

As described in additional detail below, the WTRU may be involved in thedetermination of a set of RRARs in a slot, the determination ofcandidate sets of transmission parameters, the determination of thepresence of control information and/or data for the WTRU, and thedetermination of subsequent transmissions that may be performed by theWTRU.

There may be one RRAR for each symbol of the slot that is used as astarting symbol. This may include every symbol, every other symbol, orevery symbol at a mini-slot boundary. Each RRAR may be configured with acertain duration and a certain PRB range. The same duration and PRBrange may be used for all slots. The configuration for a given set ofRRAR may be provided by RRC signaling. Multiple such sets of RRARs maybe configured by RRC for added flexibility. The applicable set, or sets,of RRAR may be indicated by a field of the DCI at the beginning of theslot. The WTRU may be configured to use a default set of RRAR in a slotif no applicable DCI was received to indicate a set for the slot. Thisapproach may provide a very low scheduling delay without requiringtransmission of DCI in every slot when there is little or no activityfor the WTRU.

A set of transmission parameters may include but is not limited to anyinformation required to successfully decode data and/or controlinformation in an RRAR. For example, the information may include one ormore of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), a transport block size, acode (or information) block size, an indication of a reference signal(including its location within an RRAR) or beam, a CRC length, and anidentity parameter.

When one or more of data and control information is present, theinformation may be specific to the data, the control information, or itmay be common for both. The information may also include an indicationof the resource within an RRAR where control information and/or data maybe present. The information may also indicate if control informationand/or data is not present. For example, the information for a first setof RRARs may indicate that both data and control information arepresent. The information may indicate that control information isincluded in the first M symbols and the highest N PRBs of the RRAR andthat data is included in the remaining resource elements of the RRAR.The information for a second set of RRARs may indicate that only data orthat only control information is present and included in all resourceelements of the RRAR. If a transmission is mapped to more than one RRAR,the information may also include a number or set of RRARs.

The WTRU may attempt decoding assuming one or more candidate sets oftransmission parameters. The candidate sets applicable to a given slot,or to a given RRAR in a slot, may be obtained from physical layer, MAC,RRC signaling, or a combination thereof. For example, DCI may indicatethe value of one transmission parameter applicable to at least onecandidate set, such as an MCS for data, while other parameters may beconfigured by RRC signaling. In another example, a field of DCI mayindicate a subset of the candidate sets configured by RRC. The WTRU maybe configured with a default candidate set of transmission parametersthat is applicable in any slot, possibly only when no applicable DCI wasreceived for the candidate sets of transmission parameters for the RRARsof this slot.

When the WTRU successfully detects control information for an RRAR, itmay apply transmission parameters indicated in this control informationwhen attempting decoding data in the same RRAR or in a subsequent RRAR.

The WTRU may make a determination of whether control information and/ordata was received in an RRAR or set of RRARs. For example, the WTRU maydetermine that control information and/or data was present if, followingdemodulation and decoding of control information and/or data based on acandidate set of transmission parameters, a CRC (possibly masked with anidentity parameter) applied to the control information or to the dataindicates successful decoding. If a first CRC indicates successfuldetection for control information, but a second CRC indicates faileddetection for data, the WTRU may determine that data intended for theWTRU was present but not successfully decoded and that a retransmissionmay be required.

The WTRU may also determine that control information and/or data wasreceived in an RRAR if a reference signal is detected above a thresholdin terms of received power or signal-to-noise ratio.

The WTRU may use a lightweight HARQ operation. For example, the WTRU maygenerate an ACK when data is successfully decoded in an RRAR and maytransmit the ACK in a subsequent UL resource or RRAR. Such transmissionsmay only be performed for a configured subset of RRARs.

The WTRU may generate a NACK when data is not successfully decoded in anRRAR and may transmit the NACK in a subsequent UL resource or RRAR. TheNACK may be generated when the WTRU determines that control informationand/or data was received in an RRAR. The WTRU may generate and transmitACK or NACK if indicated to do so in DCI applicable to the slot.

If the WTRU does not successfully decode data or control information foran RRAR, the WTRU may keep the received signal or demodulated softsymbols in a memory for a default HARQ entity and redundancy versionassociated with the RRAR. The association may be pre-defined (i.e., byorder of RRAR in the slot) or signaled. The WTRU may do this if itdetermines that control information and/or data was received based ondetection of a reference signal above a threshold. The WTRU may clearthe information for a HARQ entity just before reception of an RRAR towhich it is associated.

If the WTRU successfully decodes control information for an RRAR, butdoes not decode the data, the WTRU may combine the demodulated softsymbols for the data portion of the RRAR with symbols already stored inthe HARQ entity indicated by the control information. This may overridethe default HARQ entity associated with this RRAR. Alternatively, theWTRU may combine the demodulated soft symbols for the data portion ofthe RRAR with symbols already stored in the HARQ entity associated withthe RRAR when it contains control information based on a pre-determinedrule.

The control information may indicate that a second subsequent RRARcontains data for the WTRU that is associated with an indicated HARQentity. In this case, the WTRU may soft-combine the symbols of thesecond RRAR with symbols already stored in the indicated HARQ entity.The control information may also indicate a redundancy version for theretransmission. Alternatively, the redundancy version may be determinedfrom a fixed association with an RRAR.

This process may enable a low-overhead URLLC operation where controlinformation in RRARs is only transmitted when there is a need for aretransmission. For example, the WTRU may attempt to decode every RRARaccording to two candidate sets of transmissions, one corresponding todata only and the second corresponding to control information or acombination of control information and data. If the WTRU does notsuccessfully decode according to either candidate set, the HARQ entityassociated with the RRAR may be cleared and demodulated symbols from theRRAR may be stored for the HARQ entity. IF the WTRU successfully decodesonly the data, an ACK may be transmitted. If the WTRU successfullydecodes the control information, data indicated by the controlinformation (possibly of the same RRAR) may be combined to the indicatedHARQ entity. An ACK or NACK may be transmitted depending on the outcome.

When the WTRU transmits NACK or ACK, the transmission may take place ina UL RRAR resource determined according one or more of the followingparameters. The UL RRAR resource may be determined based on anassociation with the DL RRAR for which NACK or ACK is reported. Theassociation may be based on a pre-determined rule and/or may beconfigured by higher layers. For example, the UL RRAR may occur a fixednumber of symbols after the associated DL RRAR and may occupy aconfigured set of PRBS, which may be different for each UL RRAR. Theconfiguration of PRBs for the UL RRAR may be provided along with theconfiguration of PRBs for the corresponding DL RRAR for each set ofRRARs configured by higher layers. The UL RRAR resource may be indicatedas part of control information decoded in the DL RRAR. If only an ACK isto be transmitted, the control information may be jointly encoded withthe data (i.e., in-band signaling).

Data scheduled within a TTI or slot may belong to more than one group oftransport blocks that are allocated to distinct physical resources(e.g., time and/or frequency) within the TTI or slot.

The allocation of transport blocks may be controlled to maximize theamount of data that can be successfully transmitted in case preemptionby higher priority traffic in certain physical resources occurs. Forexample, the allocation of transport blocks may be such that physicalresources that cannot be, or are less likely to be, preempted by higherpriority traffic are used for a first group of transport blocks, whilephysical resources that can potentially be, or are more likely to be,preempted by higher priority traffic are used for at least a secondgroup of transport blocks.

A group of transport blocks may include a transmission or retransmissionof a single transport block, or a set of two or more transmitted orretransmitted transport blocks multiplexed in the spatial domain thatare allocated to the same time/frequency resources. If thetransmission/retransmission of a portion of a transport block issupported, the transport block may include either a complete transportblock or of a subset of codeblocks associated with the transport block.The allocation of groups of transport blocks to resources may beefficiently indicated by configured RRARs in the downlink controlinformation. Higher priority traffic may include control and/or datainformation, which may be for a different WTRU.

If preemption does occur in certain resources of the TTI, such as theRRARs, the transmission of only the groups of transport blocks allocatedto these resources may be affected. This may reduce the waste ofresources as compared to a method where a single group of transportblocks is allocated to the whole TTI. In the latter case, all the datascheduled in the TTI would need to be retransmitted.

An additional amount of HARQ feedback may be required to support theallocation of groups of transport blocks, but this may be kept to aminimum by a suitable allocation of resources to each group of transportblocks. For example, if preemption can only occur in a small fraction ofthe physical resources available to the TTI, a single group of transportblocks may be allocated to the rest of the physical resources.

Referring now to FIG. 13 , a diagram illustrating a first example of theshaping of transport block allocations is shown. FIG. 13 illustrates adownlink case, but the allocations may also be applicable to an uplinkor sidelink case. As shown, a TTI 1302 may span 7 OFDM symbols. Controlinformation may be provided in a first OFDM symbol 1304 and data may beprovided in subsequent symbols. The control information may indicatethat a first group of transport blocks 1306 is allocated to firstphysical resources, while a second group of transport blocks 1308 isallocated to second physical resources. The second resources maypotentially be preempted by high priority traffic. It should be notedthat the scheduler may not know whether preemption will occur when thecontrol information is determined. The second resources may correspondto configured RRARs.

If preemption does not occur, all transport blocks may be successfullydecoded, assuming enough energy was accumulated. On the other hand, ifpreemption does occur on a portion or all of the second resources in thesecond group of transport blocks 1308, the first group of transportblocks 1306 may still be successfully decoded even if the second groupof transport blocks are not. The scheduler may retransmit the secondgroup of transport blocks 1308 in a subsequent TTI, and may toggle theassociated new data indicator to prevent buffer corruption.

Referring now to FIG. 14 , a diagram illustrating another example ofshaping of transport block allocations is shown. FIG. 14 shows a casewhere partial transmission of a transport block is supported. As shown,a TTI 1402 may span 7 OFDM symbols. Control information may be providedin a first OFDM symbol 1404. Data and additional control information maybe provided in subsequent symbols. In this example, a first set ofresources are allocated to the transmission of a subset of codeblocks ofa first transport block group 1406. A second set of resources areallocated to a second transport block group 1408 and a third set ofresources are allocated to a third transport block group 1410. The thirdset of resources may contain additional control information 1412 thatmay be used for the decoding of the third transport block group 1410.

The resources allocated to a given group of transport blocks in thedownlink, uplink, or sidelink may be indicated by one or more methods. AWTRU may determine the applicable physical resource allocation for thetransmission of a group of transport blocks as a function ofmultiplexing information. This information may be determined based oncontrol signaling information.

A WTRU may determine applicable resources using a set of one or moretransmission resources that overlap, at least partially in time and/orfrequency, with another resource of the same set. The set of one or moretransmission resources may operate at different scheduling granularity.In one example, the set of one or more transmission resources maycorrespond to one or more resources, if disjoint in time/frequency,associated with a transport block and/or with a HARQ process. In anotherexample, the set of one or more transmission resources may correspond toone or more resources, if disjoint in time/frequency, associated withone or more codeblocks (e.g., when codeblock-based HARQ is applicable tothe applicable transport blocks and/or HARQ process).

In another example, more than one type of granularity may be usedconcurrently. For example, codeblock-based granularity (e.g., for aneMBB transmission) and transport block/HARQ-based granularity (e.g., fora URLLC transmission) may be used, and may be aligned in terms of anoverlapping of their respective resources. The WTRU may then computemutually exclusive physical resources for each transmission at theapplicable granularity based on the determined multiplexing information.The WTRU may determine the multiplexing information from a semi-staticconfiguration, dynamically, or using a combination of both.

The WTRU may determine first physical resources for a first group oftransport blocks, for example, based on semi-static configuration. Thefirst group of transport blocks may be RRAR. The WTRU may then determinesecond physical resources for a second group of transport blocks from afield of DCI. A portion of a second physical resource may not overlapwith the physical resources allocated to the first group of transportblocks. For example, the second physical resources may include a set ofresource blocks in the frequency domain indicated by a frequencyallocation field and a set of time symbols spanning the duration of theTTI. Resources used for transmission of control information may beexcluded. The duration of a TTI may be one or more slots, and may beindicated by a field of DCI.

The first physical resources and/or the second physical resources mayinclude a set of antenna ports. The WTRU may exclude time/frequencyresources for one group of transport blocks if the time/frequencyresources are allocated to a second group of transport blocks for thesame set of antenna ports. Alternatively, the exclusion may applyregardless of the set of antenna ports used for the transmission of eachgroup of transport blocks.

The WTRU may have a semi-static configuration of an RRAR, including aset of first resources for a transport block that corresponds to x₁symbols over y₁ subcarriers. The WTRU may receive dynamic controlsignaling (e.g., a DCI) that schedules a large transport block over asecond set of resources that corresponds to x₂ symbols over y₂subcarriers. The first set of resources (x₁, y₁) may be a subset of thesecond set of resources (x₂, y₂).

If the WTRU determines that the configuration of the first set ofresources is activated and/or if the DCI includes an indication that thefirst set of resources is applicable for the scheduled time interval(e.g., slot, subframe, or the like), the WTRU may determine that a firsttransmission (e.g. a first transport block, or a retransmission thereof)is expected in the first set of resources while a second transmission(e.g., a second transport block, a set of codeblocks of a secondtransport block, or a retransmission thereof) is expected in the secondset of resources, excluding the portion corresponding to (x₁, y₁).Otherwise, the WTRU may determine that a transmission is expected in theexplicitly indicated resources, such as (x₂, y₂). This may begeneralized to more than two sets of resources.

This technique may enable a high level of scheduling flexibility formultiplexing different transmissions, such as user plane or controlplane data on a physical data channel and/or downlink/uplink controlsignaling on a physical control channel for the same WTRU or fordifferent WTRUs. The granularity may be controlled and configured by thenetwork. For example, the network may configure a WTRU with acodeblock-based approach for HARQ (e.g., for eMBB services). The networkmay further configure URLLC transmissions with resources, whereby theURLLC transport block can match the granularity of a codeblock used foran eMBB transport block. This approach may increase robustness topuncturing and may minimize retransmission overhead when the puncturingof eMBB transmissions occur (e.g., when codeblock-based feedback and/orretransmissions are supported in the system). This may be furthergeneralized to any transmission that differs in transmission timeduration and/or in transmission bandwidth.

Transmission parameters for each group of transport blocks may beindicated to the WTRU. Transmission parameters may include at least aMCS for each transport block of a group of transport blocks and a set ofantenna ports and/or beam process for reception or transmission. Atleast one of the parameters may be common to more than one group oftransport blocks. For example, if each group includes two transportblocks, the two MCS values applicable to a first group may be applicableto the second group as well. Alternatively, different sets of values maybe signaled independently for each group of transport blocks.

Each group of transport blocks may be associated with a separate HARQprocess. The identity of the HARQ process may be explicitly indicated(e.g., from a field of DCI) for at least one group of transport blocks.The identity of the HARQ process may be determined implicitly for atleast one group of transport blocks. For example, a HARQ processidentity may be configured by higher layers for each RRAR. The WTRU maythen determine the HARQ process identity for a transport block groupbased on the identity of the RRAR indicated by DCI.

A WTRU may determine at least one of a new data indicator (NDI), aretransmission sequence number, and a redundancy version (RV) for eachtransport block. At least one of these values may be explicitlyindicated from DCI. Certain values, such as the RV, may be determinedimplicitly for at least one group of transport blocks in a mannersimilar to the HARQ process identity as described above.

Multiple disjoint physical resources (e.g. RRARs) may be configuredwithin the TTI and may be allocated for the transmission of specificredundancy versions of the same transport block. For example, RRARs maybe configured in the third, fifth, and seventh symbol of a slot for agroup of transport blocks. The third symbol may be used for transmittinga first redundancy version of each transport block of the group. Thefifth symbol may be used for transmitting a second redundancy version ofeach transport block of the group. The seventh symbol may be used fortransmitting a third redundancy version of each transport block of thegroup. The redundancy version that may be used in each disjoint resourcemay be obtained from DCI or from a configured or pre-determinedsequence.

A WTRU may be first configured by higher layers with a set of RRARs. Theset may be defined as a set of time symbols within a slot (e.g., thefourth and sixth symbol) and a frequency allocation for each symbol. Thefrequency allocation may be defined relative to resources used forcontrol signaling (e.g., a control resource set). The frequencyallocation may be done separately for each time symbol.

The WTRU may monitor a control channel in a slot assuming a DCI formatsupporting operation with multiple groups of TBs. The DCI format mayinclude one or more of the following fields.

The DCI format may include a frequency allocation field indicating themaximum amount of resources that may be allocated to a first group oftransport blocks. The DCI format may include a field indicating theantenna ports associated with the transmissions. The DCI format mayinclude a HARQ process identity field indicating the HARQ processapplicable to the first group of transport blocks. The DCI format mayinclude at least one MCS field indicating modulation and codingapplicable to each transport block within a group. The DCI format mayinclude at least one new data indicator field and redundancy versionfield applicable to each transport block for at least the first group oftransport blocks.

The DCI format may include a transport block group indicator field. Thisfield may take multiple possible values indicating whether one ormultiple groups of transport blocks are transmitted and on whichresource. This field may also include a new data indicator for a secondgroup of transport blocks, and (if applicable) a type of transportchannel for each group.

A first value of the field may indicate that a single group of transportblocks is transmitted in the TTI (or slot or set of slots), which maythen be allocated the full resources indicated by the frequencyallocation field over the TTI.

A second value of the field may indicate that two groups of transportblocks are transmitted in the TTI (or slot or set of slots). The firstgroup may be allocated the resources indicated by the frequencyallocation field, excluding the resources overlapping with the resourcesallocated to the second group. The second group may be allocated theresources of the configured set of RRARs.

A third value of the field may indicate that a single group of transportblocks is transmitted in the TTI (or slot or set of slots), but thatthis group is only allocated the resources indicated by the frequencyallocation field, excluding the resources overlapping the configured setof RRARs. This value may be used, for example, if the scheduler knowsthat the RRARs will be allocated to another WTRU with high probability.In another example, the RRARs may correspond to a control resource setof subsequent slots for a multi-slot allocation. The scheduler may usethis value to indicate that no data should be decoded from the resourcesof the control resource set of subsequent slots if it knows that thecontrol resource set is likely to be used for scheduling another WTRU.

A fourth value of the field may indicate that two groups of transportblocks are transmitted in the TTI (or slot). In addition, this value mayindicate that the new data indicator is toggled for both transportblocks of the second group. In this case, the WTRU may clear data storedin the corresponding HARQ entity before receiving the new data. Thisvalue may be used if preemption has occurred in a previous transmission,or after transport blocks of the second group have been receivedsuccessfully. If new data indicators for the second group are providedseparately, this value may not need to be defined.

The WTRU may determine that at least part of a transmission may beconsidered by the HARQ process to contain a pre-emption event. The WTRUmay perform one or more actions to ensure that possible HARQ buffercorruption is avoided in case a pre-emption event occurs from asoft-combining process. The one or more actions may be referred to asHARQ buffer corruption avoidance. The WTRU may instantiate a second softbuffer for the concerned HARQ process to maintain the state of the softbuffer prior to the reception of the transmission for the concerned HARQprocess while performing soft-combining with the transmission in a firstsoft buffer. The WTRU may subsequently determine which of the first orthe second soft buffer to consider for the determination of the furtherHARQ processing (e.g. decoding of the transport blocks, generation ofHARQ feedback associated with the current transmission) based on adetermination of whether or not the entire transmission may beconsidered for the concerned transmission. For example, the WTRU mayconsider the second soft buffer for the further processing of atransport block and/or for generation of HARQ feedback if it determinesthat a pre-emption event has occurred for the concerned transmissionpossibly using portions of the transmission that are deemed valid andunlikely to be corrupted by the pre-emption event. Otherwise the firstbuffer may be used.

Implicit means may be used to determine that pre-emption has occurred.The WTRU may perform the determination of whether or not a pre-emptionevent has occurred implicitly. The determination may be based on one ormore of the set of PRBs associated with a downlink transmission for theconcerned HARQ process, from the identity of the concerned HARQ process,from an associated control channel, and from the timing of thetransmission (e.g., such as a specific TTI within a range of TTIs). Themeans of determination may be a configuration aspect of the WTRU. Themeans of determination may be configured by one or more of a semi-staticconfiguration of a range of addressable PRBs in frequency and/or intime, a semi-static configuration of the HARQ entity with one or moreprocess IDs supporting such determination, a configuration associatedwith a control channel indicating that such a determination issupported, and a semi-static configuration of one or more TTIs within arange of TTIs.

Explicit means may be used to determine that pre-emption has occurred.The WTRU may perform the determination of whether or not a pre-emptionevent has occurred explicitly, such as based on reception of DCI. TheDCI may indicate that handling for pre-emption may be performed by theWTRU for a transmission for the concerned HARQ process. Thedetermination may be made according to any of the methods describedherein or according to a combination of any of the methods describedherein.

For a given HARQ process, a WTRU may determine whether or not it mayperform HARQ buffer corruption avoidance on a per transmission basisand/or for the lifetime of the HARQ process (e.g., until the process issuccessful and/or until a HARQ ACK is generated). The WTRU may make thedetermination of HARQ buffer corruption at one or more points. The WTRUmay make the determination when it determines that a new HARQ process isstarted, when it determines that an initial HARQ transmission isreceived, when it determines that the NDI has been toggled, and/or whenit determines that a transmission is for a new transport block (ormultiple thereof if supported by a same HARQ process). The WTRU maydetermine that a HARQ process is becoming active for the transmission ofa new transport block (or for multiple transport blocks if supportedwithin the same HARQ process) if, for example, the NDI is toggled for aHARQ process.

The determination for the handling of HARQ buffer corruption avoidancefor a given HARQ process may be performed in combination with one ormore of the above implicit or explicit indications when they aredetermined from the initial transmission of the HARQ process. Forexample, the WTRU may determine that the NDI has been toggled for a HARQprocess, and it may determine that the initial transmission correspondsto a set of PRBs configured for the handling of pre-emption events. Insuch a case, the WTRU may determine that the HARQ process should beinstantiated and/or adjusted to support HARQ buffer corruption avoidanceat least for one retransmission for this HARQ process, and/or for allretransmissions associated with the transport blocks of the initialtransmission. The determination may be made according to any of themethods described herein or according to a combination of any of themethods described herein.

From the perspective of the network, the above methods may enablestatistical multiplexing of transmissions for different types of HARQprocesses between multiple WTRUs. Sufficient opportunities may begenerated to perform pre-emption using physical resources associatedwith a HARQ process that is known and/or expected to have HARQ buffercorruption currently active. The scheduler may thereby ensure that WTRUsdo not exceed their HARQ capabilities, even without any WTRUimplementation of over-provisioning memory space for HARQ buffering andHARQ decoding. For example, WTRUs operating at very high HARQ occupancymay be scheduled such that HARQ buffer corruption avoidance is notindicated, mandated, or expected during such a period of schedulingactivity. The burden of supporting HARQ buffer corruption avoidance forone, some, or few HARQ processes may be spread across other WTRUs havinga lower occupancy. Alternatively, this may be performed based on thecapabilities of the WTRU if applicable and with considerations for WTRUsthat may have specific provisions enabling full occupancy and HARQbuffer avoidance concurrently.

Corruption of data and HARQ retransmissions may be avoided whileenabling a scheduler in a loaded cell to perform pre-emptiontransmissions when code block-based transmissions are used. From theWTRU perspective, one benefit is that WTRUs may support HARQ buffercorruption avoidance without having to over-dimension their HARQprocessing and memory capabilities.

Although features and elements are described above in particularcombinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that eachfeature or element can be used alone or in any combination with theother features and elements. In addition, the methods described hereinmay be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmwareincorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computeror processor. Examples of computer-readable media include electronicsignals (transmitted over wired or wireless connections) andcomputer-readable storage media. Examples of computer-readable storagemedia include, but are not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), arandom access memory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductormemory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removabledisks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks,and digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association withsoftware may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for usein a WTRU, UE, terminal, base station, RNC, or any host computer.

What is claimed is:
 1. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU)comprising a processor configured to: receive a radio resource control(RRC) message, the RRC message indicating a plurality of radio resourcereservation patterns, wherein each respective radio resource reservationpattern is associated with a respective recurrence period, and the RRCmessage comprises a respective first indication of time domain resourcescorresponding to the respective radio resource reservation pattern and arespective second indication of frequency domain resources correspondingto the respective radio resource reservation pattern; receive downlinkcontrol information (DCI), wherein the DCI indicates radio resourcesallocated to the WTRU for a downlink transmission, the DCI comprises afield, the field indicating that a first radio resource reservationpattern of the plurality of radio resource reservation patternsindicated by the RRC message is to be used for receiving the downlinktransmission, and that a second radio resource reservation pattern ofthe plurality of radio resource reservation patterns indicated by theRRC message is reserved and is not to be used for receiving the downlinktransmission; and receive data associated with the downlinktransmission, wherein the data is received using a portion of the radioresources allocated to the WTRU for the downlink transmission, theportion of the radio resources used to receive the data including thefirst radio resource reservation pattern and excluding the second radioresource reservation pattern in accordance with the field comprised inthe DCI.
 2. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein the respective recurrenceperiod corresponds to a periodic repetition of the time domain resourcesand the frequency domain resources corresponding to the respective radioresource reservation pattern.
 3. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein therespective first indication of time domain resources corresponding tothe respective radio resource reservation pattern and the respectivesecond indication of frequency domain resources corresponding to therespective radio resource reservation pattern comprised in the RRCmessage indicate which respective resource elements correspond to therespective radio resource reservation pattern.
 4. The WTRU of claim 1,wherein the data corresponds to a transport block, and the processor isconfigured to determine that the second radio resource reservationpattern indicated using the field comprised in the DCI does not includebits of the transport block.
 5. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein the RRCmessage comprises an indication of a respective periodicitycorresponding to the respective recurrence period of the respectiveradio resource reservation pattern.
 6. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein eachof the first radio resource reservation pattern and the second radioresource reservation pattern at least partially overlap with the radioresources allocated for the downlink transmission.
 7. The WTRU of claim1, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive a secondphysical downlink control channel transmission, wherein the secondphysical downlink control channel transmission comprises second DCI, thesecond DCI indicates second radio resources allocated to the WTRU for asecond downlink transmission, the second DCI comprises a second field,the second field indicating that the first radio resource reservationpattern of the plurality of radio resource reservation patternsindicated by the RRC message is to be used for receiving the seconddownlink transmission and that the second radio resource reservationpattern of the plurality of radio resource reservation patternsindicated by the RRC message is to be used for receiving the seconddownlink transmission; and receive second data associated with thesecond downlink transmission, wherein the second data is received usingthe second radio resources allocated to the WTRU for the second downlinktransmission, the second radio resources used to receive the second dataincluding the first radio resource reservation pattern and the secondradio resource reservation pattern in accordance with the second fieldcomprised in the second DCI.
 8. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein at leastone radio resource reservation pattern corresponds to a radio resourceallocation region (RRAR).
 9. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein the processoris further configured to: receive a third physical downlink controlchannel transmission, wherein the third physical downlink controlchannel transmission comprises third DCI, the third DCI indicates thirdradio resources allocated to the WTRU for a third downlink transmission,the third DCI comprises a third field, the third field indicates thatthe first radio resource reservation pattern of the plurality of radioresource reservation patterns indicated by the RRC message is reservedand is not to be used for receiving the second downlink transmission andthat the second radio resource reservation pattern of the plurality ofradio resource reservation patterns indicated by the RRC message isreserved and is not to be used for receiving the third downlinktransmission; and receive third data associated with the third downlinktransmission, wherein the third data is received using a portion of thethird radio resources allocated to the WTRU for the third downlinktransmission, the portion of the third radio resources used to receivethe second data excluding the first radio resource reservation patternand the second radio resource reservation pattern in accordance with thethird field comprised in the third DCI.
 10. The WTRU of claim 1, whereinthe respective second indication of frequency domain resourcescorresponding to the respective radio resource reservation patterncomprises an indication of which physical resource blocks of a bandwidthpart correspond to the respective radio resource reservation pattern.11. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein a respective subcarrier spacing isindicated for each of the plurality of radio resource reservationpatterns indicated by the RRC message.
 12. The WTRU of claim 1, whereinthe respective first indication of time domain resources correspondingto the respective radio resource reservation pattern comprises a bitmap,and the bitmap indicates which orthogonal frequency divisionalmultiplexing (OFDM) symbols correspond to the respective radio resourcereservation pattern.
 13. A method implemented by a WirelessTransmit/Receive Unit (WTRU), the method comprising: receiving a radioresource control (RRC) message, the RRC message indicating a pluralityof radio resource reservation patterns, wherein each respective radioresource reservation pattern is associated with a respective recurrenceperiod, and the RRC message comprises a respective first indication oftime domain resources corresponding to the respective radio resourcereservation pattern and a respective second indication of frequencydomain resources corresponding to the respective radio resourcereservation pattern; receiving downlink control information (DCI),wherein the DCI indicates radio resources allocated to the WTRU for adownlink transmission, the DCI comprises a field, the field indicatingthat a first radio resource reservation pattern of the plurality ofradio resource reservation patterns indicated by the RRC message is tobe used for receiving the downlink transmission and that a second radioresource reservation pattern of the plurality of radio resourcereservation patterns indicated by the RRC message is reserved and is notto be used for receiving the downlink transmission; and receiving dataassociated with the downlink transmission, wherein the data is receivedusing a portion of the radio resources allocated to the WTRU for thedownlink transmission, the portion of the radio resources used toreceive the data including the first radio resource reservation patternand excluding the second radio resource reservation pattern inaccordance with the field comprised in the DCI.
 14. The method of claim13, wherein the respective recurrence period corresponds to a periodicrepetition of the time domain resources and the frequency domainresources corresponding to the respective radio resource reservationpattern.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein the respective firstindication of time domain resources corresponding to the respectiveradio resource reservation pattern and the respective second indicationof frequency domain resources corresponding to the respective radioresource reservation pattern comprised in the RRC message indicate whichrespective resource elements correspond to the respective radio resourcereservation pattern.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein the datacorresponds to a transport block, and the method comprises determiningthat the second radio resource reservation pattern indicated using thefield comprised in the DCI does not include bits of the transport block.17. The method of claim 13, wherein the RRC message comprises anindication of a respective periodicity corresponding to the respectiverecurrence period of the respective radio resource reservation pattern.18. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the first radio resourcereservation pattern and the second radio resource reservation pattern atleast partially overlap with the radio resources allocated for thedownlink transmission.
 19. The method of claim 13, wherein the processoris further configured to: receive a second physical downlink controlchannel transmission, wherein the second physical downlink controlchannel transmission comprises second DCI, the second DCI indicatessecond radio resources allocated to the WTRU for a second downlinktransmission, the second DCI comprises a second field, the second fieldindicating that the first radio resource reservation pattern of theplurality of radio resource reservation patterns indicated by the RRCmessage is to be used for receiving the second downlink transmission andthat the second radio resource reservation pattern of the plurality ofradio resource reservation patterns indicated by the RRC message is tobe used for receiving the second downlink transmission; and receivesecond data associated with the second downlink transmission, whereinthe second data is received using the second radio resources allocatedto the WTRU for the second downlink transmission, the second radioresources used to receive the second data including the first radioresource reservation pattern and the second radio resource reservationpattern in accordance with the second field comprised in the second DCI.20. The method of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configuredto: receive a third physical downlink control channel transmission,wherein the third physical downlink control channel transmissioncomprises third DCI, the third DCI indicates third radio resourcesallocated to the WTRU for a third downlink transmission, the third DCIcomprises a third field, the third field indicates that the first radioresource reservation pattern of the plurality of radio resourcereservation patterns indicated by the RRC message is reserved and is notto be used for receiving the second downlink transmission and that thesecond radio resource reservation pattern of the plurality of radioresource reservation patterns indicated by the RRC message is reservedand is not to be used for receiving the third downlink transmission; andreceive third data associated with the third downlink transmission,wherein the third data is received using a portion of the third radioresources allocated to the WTRU for the third downlink transmission, theportion of the third radio resources used to receive the second dataexcluding the first radio resource reservation pattern and the secondradio resource reservation pattern in accordance with the third fieldcomprised in the third DCI.